Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – Lawmakers are closely scrutinizing budget allocations at the Religious Affairs Ministry after discovering alleged misappropriation of funds at the directorate for Islamic education.
During a hearing early this week, legislators from the House of Representatives' (DPR) Commission VIII on religious affairs questioned a request for a budget increase by Nur Syam, the Islamic education director general.
Speaking before lawmakers on Monday, Nur said the ministry planned to spend Rp 35 trillion (US$3.9 trillion) of the total Rp 42 trillion budget on developing Islamic education.
Around Rp 33.5 trillion will go to state Islamic education institutions across the archipelago (almost 4,000 institutions). The rest will be allocated for the same institutions in the capital. "Of that money, around Rp 5.09 trillion will be to procure equipment," Nur said.
Going into detail, Nur said around Rp 25 million would go toward building Islamic boarding schools, while another Rp 23.2 million would be used to improve boarding schools.
The plan also includes a program to spend Rp 20 million of the money on health facilities at boarding schools and to provide 34 "packages" worth Rp 110 million to improve the quality of Islamic education in ordinary schools.
Nur has roundly failed to convince Commission VIII members to approve this budget. Not only have lawmakers questioned details of the specific places where the ministry plans to build more boarding schools but are demanding an explanation for this year's budget, which according to them, has been poorly managed.
Lawmaker Nurul Imam Mustofa questioned the money spent on the improvement of the country's madrasah (Islamic schools).
"People from my electoral district of Garut [West Java] told me that the ministry only approved one of their 20 requests for financial assistance for schools in their neighborhood. I don't know how you managed the previous budget allocation," the Democratic Party politician said.
Other lawmakers, such as Abdul Aziz Suseno of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and Mahrus Munir of the Democratic Party demanded comprehensive data of all Islamic boarding schools in the country so that lawmakers could check whether or not they do in fact exist.
"Tell us where are the boarding schools located and how to access them so that we can monitor them," they asked.
Responding to lawmakers' accusations of budget mismanagement, Nur only said that everything was already according to the ministry's protocol. "We cannot approve all requests for financial assistance. We have priorities," he said.
The commission concluded that the ministry had failed to manage the huge amount of state budget and planned to ask the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) to investigate the ministry's performance.
Most of the ministry's annual budget is spent on Islamic education. This year, Rp 31.5 trillion of the ministry's total funds of Rp 39 trillion has been allocated to support the division.